by Leigh Goessl

Created on: May 11, 2010

On the heels of a Facebook chat glitch that occurred on May 5, 2010 which heightened already existing privacy concerns, Facebook is seemingly gearing up to defend its privacy policies against the complaints filed with the FTC. Several news sources have reported the company is strengthening its Washington DC presence.

At the center of the privacy controversy is the continuous changes the popular social networking website has made to its privacy policies over the course of time. Many of these additions require users to opt-out rather than opt-in. Essentially this means is that users have to navigate through the privacy policies and figure out how to physically opt-out if they don't want their information more widely streamed.

Much of the time users don't even realize they've changed. What they see is Facebook has updated the site, and users don't realize any privacy restrictions they've initiated often go back to the default (CBSnews.com).

The Wall Street Journal reports "Last week, the Electronic Privacy Information Center [EPIC], an advocacy group in Washington, filed a complaint with the FTC, charging that recent changes to Facebook's privacy policy make more information public by default, diminishing user privacy and contradicting Facebook's own representations" (WSJ, May 10, 2010).

Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of EPIC indicated the Facebook privacy policy is intentionally confusing and this is part of the overall problem. He points out the fact Facebook keeps changing their policies after members sign up and have already shared their personal information.

New York's Chuck Schumer had come forward with his concerns and request for a closer examination. His statement about Facebook's new policies was the social network "make opting out of these features "complicated and confusing." The senator said connected profiles are "a gold mine of marketing data that could use by used for spam and potentially scammers, intent on peddling their wares." (PCMag.com. April 26, 2010)

Several complainants cite the confusing nature of the privacy policies are a large part of the problem as users have difficulty keeping up and following the changes, not to mention it is time consuming. Facebook has defended the business and states they've provided the privacy tools and give members more control over their information.

Seriously, does anyone want to spend the majority of their time on Facebook researching new policies and then making changes to their privacy controls?

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